Some movie-goers who see the new Mel Gibson film The Passion of Christ will find its depiction of the brutality of Jesus' death to be quite disturbing. There has been a lot controversy in the lead-up to the film's release as some worry that the overly realistic portrayal of the biblical events of Christ's crucifixion might stir up passions of the wrong sort, namely anti-Semitism.
Why does Mel Gibson's The Passion have to be so violent? Why focus on the rather ghoulish aspects of this ancient execution? Why turn our attention to a sickening miscarriage of justice that took place, as it does so many times, in the context of political machinations and inflamed passions? What's the point of it all?
Are the brutality and raw portrayal of this man's suffering just a gimmick for selling the film, a kind of "religious shock value" that fits in with the penchant for heightened experience that is a part of this day and age?
Gibson has said that he made this film to be the most realistic portrayal ever of the last hours of Jesus' life. Many would agree that in this goal Gibson has succeeded, at least as far as the depiction of the biblical accounts is concerned.
Maybe the better question is not, "Why did Gibson have to make such a disturbing and violent film?" but rather, "Why was there so much blood, gore and brutality in the first place?"
Historically, one might say that in ancient times much of life, in general, but in particular, executions, tended to be a pretty brutal affair - to make an understatement. The form of execution selected revealed the type of judgment given to the criminal. Jesus' death by crucifixion revealed the severe judgment given to him. He was executed as a criminal and as a non-Roman. This kind of death, reserved for people in this judgment category, was designed to shock and intimidate the general population into submission. Jesus death was gruesome and shocking because it was meant to be gruesome and shocking.
Suffering: Jesus' I.D. Tag
Biblically speaking, one might think of all of the specific prophecies given in the Old Testament that were meant to identify the Messiah.These included details not only about the Messiah's life, but also about the way the Messiah would die. One could say that the brutal and unjust nature of Jesus' death on the cross was part of Jesus' I.D. tag so that people could recognize him as the Messiah and so that his claims to be the Messiah of Israel might be authenticated.
Theologically speaking, the case is made that Jesus' suffering and death were crucial to God's overall plan to reconcile people to Himself. Without the shedding of innocent blood in the place of the guilty party, (you and I are the guilty parties) God's justice cannot be satisfied and humankind cannot live in harmonious relationship with a holy God. Jesus functioned as the literal scapegoat for the punishment of our guilt. The original ancient Jewish religious ritual of killing the ceremonial scapegoat was a bloody, messy and some would say cruel event.
Although all of this may give a intellectual context for understanding the film, does it really satisfy on an emotional level?
The uniqueness of Mel Gibson's The Passion is that it gives viewers the opportunity to experience, with their visual and audio senses, the story of Jesus and connect to his suffering on an emotional level.
Perhaps the film does not mean the same thing to everyone, perhaps it is not experienced in the same way by all who see it, but the point is that many report that they are profoundly moved by the experience of seeing the film.
Why?
Ask a hundred people who have seen the film and you will get a hundred different answers.
Yet, at the heart of Gibson's film lies the original passion of Jesus. Why did Jesus suffer and die in such a cruel way? It is a question that people have asked for centuries. And people continue to ask this question as they ask themselves other hard questions about suffering and death:
Why does a loved one die of cancer? How can a child be raped and murdered? Why the untold personal suffering generated by a thousand stupid wars?
The mind recoils at such evil and ugliness, yet it happens to "someone" every day.
Human suffering, whether experienced up close and personal or studied from a distance, is perturbing. It is ugly, tragic, cruel, unsightly and a whole list of other adjectives that could be applied equally as well to the crucifixion. The experience of suffering is what touches our touches the core of our being in a profound way.
Perhaps this is a reason why The Passion of Christ film connects so deeply with so many people. By accurately portraying the suffering of Jesus on film in a new way, it gives people an opportunity to empathize with Jesus and feel that Jesus can empathize with them in the midst of their own experience of suffering and death. Whether one is a committed follower of Jesus or not, whether one accepts the historical, biblical and theological contexts that shape the meaning of the crucifixion or not, the stark reality that is difficult to escape is that Jesus was a "man of sorrows", one who knows our sorrows through his own suffering.
Jesus meets us in suffering. When he tells us, "I know what you are going through and what you are feeling because I too have suffered," we can believe him. And if we can believe him when it comes to the problem of suffering, maybe we can begin to believe him for the rest of life.
The brutality and raw passion of Gibson's The Passion of Christ are not about some cynical money grab through religious "shock" tactics. If there is shock value in the crucifixion it was not Gibson who originated it. If Gibson is faithful to Jesus and the movie is faithful to the original text, then this film is about helping people to find hope in the midst of life's pain through seeing Jesus more clearly.
Catherine Savard is the editor of ilyaplus.com. She lives in Quebec, Canada with her husband and two kids.
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